'2001: A Space Odyssey' Live in Concert with the MSO

Overview

A spaceship glides through the solar system while Johann Strauss' 'The Blue Danube' plays. One of 2001: A Space Odyssey's standout moments, it's also one of the absolute best scenes in cinema history. More than five decades later, Stanley Kubrick's crucial sequence still remains both a sight to behold and a treat to listen to — so imagine how great it'll look and sound when it returns to the big screen with a live orchestra performing its music.

It's a hefty job; however, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, as conducted by Benjamin Northey and featuring the MSO Chorus, is more than up to the task. Indeed, given how often they seem to be playing film scores live these days (taking on everything from Star Wars to Harry Potter and The Little Mermaid), these musicians are clearly big movie buffs.

As earth's early ape population throws bones into the air, futuristic astronauts fly far beyond this planet of ours and HAL refuses to open the pod bay doors, MSO will relive each of 2001's musical highlights. Richard Strauss' 'Also sprach Zarathustra', Gyorgy Ligeti's 'Lux aeterna', 'Aventures' and 'Atmosphères' and Aram Khachaturian's music for the ballet Gayane will echo with orchestral fervour, too — and Kubrick's cinematic masterpiece, as co-written with sci-fi author Arthur C Clarke, will continue to ponder humanity's place in this sprawling universe.

A Live Presentation of 2001: A Space Odyssey with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra plays at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre at 7pm on Saturday, January 25, 2020.